According to Del Suggs, “leading with integrity is one of the great challenges of leadership. We often hear those phrases like “walk the talk” and “lead by example”. Unfortunately, you can’t just lead by cliché. You really have to “put your money where your mouth is”, as the saying goes.
According to Del Suggs, “leading with integrity is one of the great challenges of leadership. We often hear those phrases like “walk the talk” and “lead by example”. Unfortunately, you can’t just lead by cliché. You really have to “put your money where your mouth is”, as the saying goes.
The policy direction of a government derives fundamentally from the personal innate character and capacity of the leader; in this case, that of the president of our country, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. We have read times without number articles detailing how pious and noble in personal character previous presidents, such as Shehu Shagari and General Gowon were. Some have even started pontificating about the personal character of President Jonathan.
Unfortunately, what is incontrovertible overall when you looked back at the governments of these leaders were evidences of purposelessness, lack of direction, lots of misplaced priorities and missed opportunities for growth and development in the economy, which were completely mixed with entrenched and endemic corruption that prevented any progress or prosperity for the majority of the citizen. Definitely, if these leaders, just as we are currently witnessing, have moral fibers in them, they will know that as leaders, the bucks’ stops on their desks. If corruption and lawlessness is being perpetrated under them unabated, then I suggest, they are ultimately responsible as leaders. I submit as well that these leaders are not “angels” of morals as they are wont to be portrayed because the bucks stop at their desks.
Nigerians should have known that Dr. Jonathan as the then Vice President is a mixed bag of self-centered shrewdness and self preservation conundrum that is devoid of interest of the larger Nigerian society at heart based on how he handled (or really unhandled) the crisis surrounding the unavailability and subsequent “so-called cabal” management of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Under the unconstitutional leadership of Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, the infamous members of the cabal ran the country as if it was their personal fiefdom while the constitutionally empowered vice president, Dr. Jonathan was sitting “pretty”, oblivious to the charade going on in Aso Rock, where he resides as well. Not until eminent citizens of the country led by Pastor Tunde Bakare and others rose up to force the Assembly to confer presidential powers on Dr. Jonathan, he was contented to just “watch”. At that time in Nigeria history, the country was sliding into monumental constitutional crisis and mismanagement, yet Dr. Goodluck did not show any leadership zest. Some of his boot lickers described this docile leadership personality as giving unconditional complete support to his boss at a time the country was sliding into oblivion.
Since his so called transformational government came into power, we have heard a lot of clichés. From rule of law mantra to providing enough megawatt of power to supply us with uninterrupted electricity and to recently, that the removal of the non-existent oil subsidy, will provide trillions of dollars (or is it naira!) for his government to provide infrastructures, roads and millions of jobs. In all of these, it will be observed that Mr. President, through his actions (or inactions) and utterances, is unaware of any of their inherent details. In fact, we can easily decipher that there are no transformational plans or basis utilized in presenting any of his policy programs and activities of government. In some discourse, Mr. President has been described as clueless. Up till now, the country is still in the abyss of darkness all over the country with little or nothing being done to revamp the power problems as he met them. Millions of dollars continues to be sunk into the ministry of no light for Nigeria. The security of the country is another area of his transformational agenda. Since he came to power, Nigerians have not known any security of life and properties going by the waves of armed robbery on roads, businesses and privates homes. Militant groups have continued to flourish all across the country killing, maiming and kidnapping innocent citizens unabated. The Boko Haram menace that has thrown fear into the mind and soul of the country is ever so present even with continued mouthing of the security outfits stating that they are on top of the problem. The president can only ask us, Nigerians to live with it because terrorism is a new global phenomenon that is not peculiar to Nigeria.
Following the recent oil subsidy removal strikes across the country, Dr. Jonathan announced the formation of several committees to help him resolve many of the issues that came to fore. One of the committees is the SURE committee headed by Ambassador Christopher Kolade. This committee was contrived to provide fuel subsidy palliatives. However, on Monday February 20, 2012, the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said “the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme promised by his administration was no longer realistic”. The President said SURE was hurriedly conceptualized in January on the heels of the nationwide protest against the removal of the fuel subsidy. Dr. Jonathan further stated that the implementation was no longer feasible since the zero-subsidy policy planned by his administration was not being implemented. Curiously however, Dr. Jonathan inaugurated the board for the implementation of the same SURE programme on February 13, 2012 as if he is not aware that the SURE is no longer realistic! Like all of his programs of government so far, just like SURE, always “hurriedly conceptualized” with no basis, no plan and no desire to see them through. They are just empty pursuits for more corruptions and propaganda with no positive end results.
As we can thus surmise from the foregoing, we as Nigerians can truly see that this President, Dr. Jonathan has no leadership direction for the country; has no moral fiber left in his being and in actual fact, as the spokesperson for former Governor in his Bayelsa State rightly said recently, that this president lie. . What can we do as Nigerians? We cannot hide our heads in the sand like the ostrich. We have to keep up with the pressure on the government through moral persuasions, offering of ideas that will catch the fancy of the so called transformational team, organize the civil society with different advocacy groups to present programs and activities that the government can support and adopt and not give up our rights to free speech, free gathering and possibly more non-violent civil society strikes against the government when they just appears utterly clueless and mortally wicked as in the case of January 01, 2012 oil subsidy withdrawal! Ultimately though, the buck stops at the desk of the president. And his character is in question. He cannot be absolved of any of the backwardness, lack of progress, atrociousness and corruption in his government. We have to call it what it is; it is your character Dr. Goodluck
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